Honors alumna Maia Southwick graduated in May 2021 with an Honors Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Health, Society and Policy. After graduating she built her professional experience working in various roles such as a Senior Market Research Associate, a Child Development Specialist, and a Kindergarten Instructional Aide. These experiences inspired her to apply to graduate school to deepen her interest in human development.
Maia now attends the University of California Davis where she is pursuing a PhD in Developmental Psychology with an emphasis in quantitative methodology. Her training focuses on how to best apply quantitative methodology to more deeply represent moral development across childhood and into young adulthood. Currently, her research consists of studying how children make prosocial decisions and evaluate others. She dreams of one day working in academia as a professor where she can continue her research and teach students.
Looking back at her time as an undergraduate student, Maia is grateful for the many experiences that guided her educational and career interests and prepared her to attend graduate school. Some highlights of her college experience include attending the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights, participating in the Hinckley Institute of Politics, and taking Michael Gill’s Research Writing course.
As an Honors psychology student she worked as an undergraduate research assistant in Drs. Monisha Pasupathi and Cecelia Wainryb’s Social Development Lab. Her experience in the lab taught her the importance of asking questions and working as a team by leaning on the expertise of her advisors and supporting her lab mates. Her work in the lab led to her Honors thesis titled “I Never Felt Like I Was Heard: The Experience of Feeling Heard in Disagreements Across Relationships.” In this study she analyzed emerging adults’ experiences navigating disagreements in a variety of close relationships including parents, friends, and romantic partners. The thesis process helped her grow in her writing, navigate the methodology of putting together an experiment, and developed her data analysis skills.
One piece of advice Maia would share with a student today is to get to know the people around them, as she believes the most valuable advice she received came from asking for the insights and advice of those she respected and looked up to. She recommends talking to everyone: the dean, faculty, staff, and peer mentors. She is appreciative of the great sense of community in the Honors College that can help further each student’s own professional development.
Maia is grateful for the ways that her time at the University of Utah and the Honors College shaped and developed her. She will forever look back with appreciation on her undergraduate years.